time, as Wordsworth did through his philosophic imagination, as Keats did
through his aesthetic imagination, as Browning did through his dramatic
imagination. He wore a poetical cloak, and avoided the vulgar crowd
physically; he had none of Browning's taste for tea-parties. But Browning
had not the tea-party imagination; Tennyson, in a great degree, had. He
preached excellent virtues to his time; but they were respectable rather
than spiritual virtues. Thus, _The Idylls of the King_ have become to us
mere ancient fashion-plates of the virtues, while the moral power of _The
Ring and the Book_ is as commanding to-day as in the year in which the
poem was first published.

It is all the more surprising that no good selection from Tennyson has yet
appeared. His "complete works" contain so much that is ephemeral and
uninspired as to be a mere book of reference on our shelves. When will
some critic do for him what Matthew Arnold did for Wordsworth, and
separate the gold from the dross--do it as well as Matthew Arnold did it
for Wordsworth? Such a volume would be far thinner than the Wordsworth
selection. But it would entitle Tennyson to a much higher place among the
poets than in these years of the reaction he is generally given.

XIV.--THE POLITICS OF SWIFT AND SHAKESPEARE

(1) SWIFT

There are few greater ironies in history than that the modern
Conservatives should be eager to claim Swift as one of themselves. One
finds even the _Morning Post_--which someone has aptly enough named the
_Morning Prussian_--cheerfully counting the author of _A Voyage to
Houyhnhnms_ in the list of sound Tories. It is undeniable that Swift wrote
pamphlets for the Tory Party of his day. A Whig, he turned from the Whigs
of Queen Anne in disgust, and carried the Tory label for the rest of his
life. If we consider realities rather than labels, however, what do we
find were the chief political ideals for which Swift stood? His politics,
as every reader of his pamphlets knows, were, above all, the politics of a
pacifist and a Home Ruler--the two things most abhorrent to the orthodox
Tories of our own time. Swift belonged to the Tory Party at one of those
rare periods at which it was a peace party. _The Conduct of the Allies_
was simply a demand for a premature peace. Worse than this, it was a
pamphlet against England's taking part in a land-war on the Continent
instead of confining herself to naval operations. "It was the kingdom's
misfortu